“Bad for U” [ft. Kelli Schaefer]

Mija is a 25-year-old LA-based DJ/producer, whose past releases have ranged from warehouse-ready bangers to dalliances with chiptune and hardcore. She recently toured the country under the felicitous banner “FK a Genre” and some have called her EDM’s last great hope. Hyperbolic as those descriptions may be, her new single “Bad for U” is an understated serving of melancholic electro pop. The track's instrumentation manages to deftly combine a whole decade’s worth of trends, from the industrial sound of Jam City to Calvin Harris’s pop-trap percussion. And Mija’s collaborator, the Portland-based singer Kelli Schaefer, has some of the xx’s Romy Madley Croft’s velvet hush in her vocals. While none this makes “Bad for U” cutting edge, it’s delivered in a sleek package that succeeds on its own terms. Virtually all of Mija’s production choices are thoughtful: Rather than smash you over the head with an explosive drop, midway through she eases the song into a molten R&B beat that’s hypnotic and wonderfully catchy. With “Bad for U,” Mija presents a different kind of EDM artist, one more subtle and studious than the hype suggests.